It’s definitely not an uncommon thing for families to get a new pet for Christmas. If it’s something you, or someone you know, is considering it goes without saying that this is a long term commitment. Your new furry friend is going to be around long after you’ve thrown out the leftover turkey (who were you kidding….you only took the damn turkey home so you didn’t offend your Mum). But before you rush off to the breeder just pause for a second and think about adoption as an option.

We at Cat Habitat are massive advocates for adopting pets…..just ask Pussa and Soph how well things have worked out for them! The sad fact though is that we are still euthanasing thousands of animals every year because they cannot be rehomed or reunited with their hoomans. For the 2015/16 year the RSPCA received a total of 55,570 cats across Australia and of that 16,205 (29%) were euthanased. The doggie equivalent was 45,256 and 5,872 (13%). Hoomans, hang your collective heads in shame. That’s an appalling number of animals destroyed in a society that has so much material wealth. However on a positive note, especially for cats, is that the number being rehomed/reclaimed has been rising markedly every year for the last five. In 2015/16 this figure was 33,772. Purrrfect!

Have You Got Room In Your Heart For These Furever Friends?

We scoured a number of websites of pet rescue agencies across the country, and these 3 felines really caught our eye. Would they fit in purrrfectly into your home?

I’m Sally and I’m looking for my furever home.

Sally is in Sydney and is looking for a relaxing and calm home where she can lie in the sun. Aren’t we all? She is available for adoption through Sydney Dogs & Cats Home.

I’m Chico, and so am I.

Chico is in Brisbane and was rescued along with her 6 bundles of joy. She wants a hooman or two to love and she can be adopted through Pets Without Partners. We loved the name of this rescue agency….they sound like our kind of people!

I’m Gracie, and me three.

Gracie is a beautiful young lady who wants to live inside to keep a supervisory eye on what’s going on. She’s waiting to be adopted by a lovely person in Perth through the good folks at SAFE Perth.

Pet rescue agencies and their volunteer foster carers do a phenomenal job caring for all manner of animals that find themselves in the unfortunate position of being without a safe and loving home. More power to them.

If it’s not possible to adopt another critter into your life on a full-time basis, think about whether you’d be prepared to be a temporary foster carer. There is plenty of need for these types of carers to take over for short periods of time when regular fosters want to take a Christmas holiday for example. Contact your local pet rescue agency and see what their requirements are.

Otherwise you could always make a donation to the RSPCA or rescue agency of your choice. Many are registered charities so donations over $2 are tax deductible too. Could be a great Christmas present for that person who is so hard to buy for!

Lacie is one of our very experienced product testers, and I was prompted to write this when her Mum told me that she and Lacie’s Dad are about to expand their furry family. Their new addition is called Bear and he’s 5 months old. He’d been abandoned and was being taken care of by the good folks at Sydney Animal Hospitals in Newport. Lacie’s Mum met Bear there and as they say in the classics, it was all meant to be. There was a bit more than 12 months between when we adopted Pussa and when we got Soph. In the intervening period Pussa had gotten pretty used to being the centre of the universe in our house and I reckon she probably though that life was pretty damn good. Then without warning one day, The Grey Cat turned up. It must have been like the world as she knew it had changed forever. I’m wondering how Lacey is going to feel when Bear arrives and she has to share her territory and the affections of her Mum and Dad with another? There’s a fair bit of advice out there about how to introduce a new cat to your old cat. Frankly, a lot of it seems to be well-intentioned but impractical, and so when we were getting Soph we employed a bit of common sense and a lot of hoping for the best.

How We Introduced A New Cat To An Old Cat

Before Soph arrived we set up our spare bedroom so that we could keep her safely separated from Pussa. In that room we had all the necessary home comforts like water, a litter tray, scratching post, her new cat bed and some cat toys to play with;

As soon as we brought Soph inside Pussa was onto it so we took Soph straight into “her” room along with the toy that her foster parents had given her. Everyone likes something familiar around when everything else is strange. Mr Pet Parent stayed with her while she investigated the new surrounds and tried not to feel bad for her as she displayed all the classic signs of a cat stressed at being in a new place. That reaction is to be expected of course, so Mr Pet Parent just let her go hide in a corner until she was ready to poke her head out again;

For the first couple of days we fed Soph and Pussa on either side of the closed door so they could get used to the smell of each other, and associate it with something positive;

After that we had our first go at letting them see each other because you can only put the inevitable off for so long. The only way we could do it was for each Pet Parent to hold a cat and walk slowly towards each other, stepping back if either cat was getting overly distressed;

At night we had Pussa in our bedroom and let Soph out to explore the rest of her new home. Pussa camped the whole night right at the bedroom door because she was dying to get out and find out more about The Intruder. As a consequence she scratched at the door the entire night and no-one it seemed was enjoying the process.

We lasted two nights with this arrangement, and to be honest just couldn’t cope with more than that. We let both cats out together and as expected Pussa made a beeline straight for poor old Soph. It wasn’t too disastrous since Soph managed to find some higher, safer ground and eventually Pussa got interested in something else and left her alone. That’s pretty much how all the following years of their relationship have gone come to think of it. The other problem we had was getting Soph to eat when she first arrived. She was anything but excited about what was on offer and really ate very little of each meal for about the first week. We persevered and after a while she figured out that it was what’s in the dish or nothing. Interestingly Soph bonded with Mr Pet Parent straight away and seemed to feel more secure when she was near him. We put a tall cat scratcher next to Mr Pet Parent’s lounge chair and she would happily sit there and observe the world around her and more importantly keep an eye on Pussa! Again, another habit that has continued ever since.

There were definitely times when we first got Soph that we thought we had made a really big mistake. Pussa was downright horrible and Soph wasn’t eating, but with time everyone got used to each other and things settled. So we say to Lacie, don’t worry there will still be plenty of affection to go round. To Bear, learn to like the food and don’t be offended if some of the current residents seem a bit rude. It’ll pass and life will be better than you ever thought possible.

There are a couple of high profile news stories circulating at the moment around animal welfare. The first is the NSW Government’s decision to ban greyhound racing as of 1 July 2017 and the other is going on in Victoria whose government wants to ban pet shops from selling puppies and kittens unless they are from rescue agencies. Both these topics are equally as important, but it’s the latter proposal that got me in a discussion recently on the topic of acquiring pets from breeders vs rescue animals. I’ve written previously about the number of pets which are euthanased each year in Australia and so it probably comes as no surprise that I keep asking why shop when you can adopt?

There seems to be a stigma which exists in some people’s minds that every animal who finds themselves in the pound or with a rescue agency has experienced trauma, maltreatment or some other misadventure, resulting in them being undesirable pets. This unfortunately is true in some cases, but pets get surrendered to agencies for all sorts of reasons. A study done by the National Council on Pet Population Study and Policy (NCPPSP) in the US, identified the top 10 reasons people surrender their cats and dogs.

The top 10 reasons people surrender their cat:

Too many animals in household (11%)

Allergies in family (8%)

Moving (8%)

No homes available for litter mates (6%)

Landlord not allowing pet (6%)

Cost of pet maintenance (6%)

House soiling (5%)

Owner having personal problems (4%)

Inadequate facilities (2%)

Incompatibility with other pets (2%)

Notice anything about the list? A lot of the reasons proffered are because owners were either unequipped or ill-prepared for taking on a cat. Yes, this is a US study, but I don’t think it’s unreasonable to assume a level of similarity between the US and Australia on this.

Once people have decided that they’re committed to acquiring a new furry friend, way too often the default position is to purchase from a breeder. I know that lots (most?) people want to get their new pet as a puppy or kitten, because let’s face it, they are just so goddam cute! We adopted Pussa and Soph when they were 1 and 2 years old respectively and often times my fellow Pet Parent and I wished we had known them when they were kittens. However, the puppy and kitten stage only lasts for a very short time and are you really going to eliminate consideration of taking on a rescue animal because they are a bit older? That’s not to say you won’t be able to get a kitten or puppy from a rescue agency. Often the Mum’s find themselves in a rescue agency when they’re pregnant (as was the case with Pussa who ended up having a litter of 3) and so the fosterer’s end up in a situation of having to find new homes for Mum plus brood.

What’s not to love about these two rescue cats?

In conversations I’ve had with people involved in rescue agencies they relate that in their experience kittens and puppies are much easier to rehome than adult cats. Maybe I felt sad for all the older cats that made me adopt adult cats on both occasions. I can say without any hesitation that both Pussa and Soph are well-adjusted, happy cats who suffer no ill-effects from their early years being in the rescue system. Of course that’s largely attributable to those good folk who were their foster carers during that time. All rescue agencies worth their salt will assess prospective adoptive parents for their suitability to take on specific animals. Courtesy of the foster carers, agencies will know the personality quirks and requirements of each animal and then match these with the circumstances, personality and experience of the hopeful parents. That means that when they do come across an animal that is traumatised it will stay in foster care until the right parents and right environment is found. I’ve no doubt that good breeders will vett purchasers before agreeing to sell any of their puppies or kittens, but I suspect less scrupulous operators are unlikely to. Having not acquired a pet through a pet shop I don’t know what their procedures are for those who wants to buy through them.

Please, the next time you or anyone you know is talking of getting a new pet, consider adopting. Adopt, don’t buy, and save the life of a beautiful animal soul who’s out there somewhere waiting for you.

I believe that it was Gandhi who said “The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated”. What does it say about us then when the RSPCA had to euthanase more than 17,000 of the 58,000-odd cats it took in in Australia during FY2015?

As I see it there are 2 factors at work. Firstly, the situation is caused in part by some irresponsible pet owners and unscrupulous breeders. Those who either refuse or don’t bother desexing their pets are the enablers letting the situation develop where there are thousands of unwanted animals born each year. The lucky ones get taken in and fostered by rescue agencies most of whom have a no-kill policy. The rather less lucky ones end up with the RSPCA either directly or via councils. I say less lucky because a significant proportion end up euthanased (for a variety of reasons) as is demonstrated by the above statistic. Then there are the really unlucky ones who are simply abandoned, or worse. People, if you aren’t prepared to desex your companion animal then I suggest you forgo pet ownership. It should also ring alarm bells if you are acquiring an animal and it’s being sold without the desexing procedure having been done.

The other driver is that some prospective owners feel the need to have a certain breed, and consider their only option is to go to a breeder. Economics 101 determines that when there is demand, supply will, all else being equal, follow. As far as cats go, by far the most common type you’ll find on adoption sites is your garden variety domestic short hair. I know Pussa and Soph agree 100% when I say, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with the old DSH brand! However, if your heart is set on a specific breed don’t dismiss the possibility of finding one through a rescue site. Cats end up in rescue agencies for all sorts of reasons, and I defy anyone to read the orphaned pet stories and not think, yep that sounds like the cat for me….regardless of breed.

When we were adopting Pussa and then Soph we were so excited at the prospect of a new furry friend, but in equal measure sad and guilty. The guilt was because so many cats had had a pretty ordinary start to life, and you want to make things better by taking them all home with you. But it was also that uncomfortable feeling of being witness to another example of our society’s want for newness, and our acceptance of disposability.

We adopted Pussa in 2009 and Soph in 2010, and for us, choosing to adopt instead of buy provided an enormous sense of satisfaction. While taking 2 cats out of the system in 7 years hardly seems like a mammoth effort, it meant we freed up foster places for 2 other cats and have provided our two with a safe, healthy and happy life. What they have given their humans in return however has been a hundred times that.